Hidden in Plain Sight
by Skelethin
Summary: [AU]In the ninja world, there are many hidden secrets. But when one secret slowly begins to unravel itself, the world as we know it will never be the same again... [Bleach crossover]


Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto, Bleach, or any other anime. Anything that is owned by someone else, I don't own.

In the ninja world, there are many hidden secrets. But when one secret slowly begins to unravel itself, the world as we know it will never be the same again...

Hidden in Plain Sight

by Skelethin

_Power._

_The word that does nothing and yet controls the world. Fears nothing, and is feared by all. That which invokes emotions far beyond what any simple word should. Fear... Loathing... Desire... Lust... Cowardice..._

_And yet... And yet people can't seem to leave it alone. _

_It is amusing to me that humans try and set the purpose of their lives on such a vague concept. What do these human want with power? They say that they seek power as an end to itself, thinking it will give them what they desire. But what is it that they truly seek? Why must these fools seek that of which quickly turn them onto the path of self-destruction?_

_It still, to this day, baffles even me. I have lived for centuries, and somehow these humans still confuse me. _

_What drives these foolish people forward? Is there some need? Is it just simple greed? Or could it be pride? Or is it some selfish desire to better than those that surround oneself? _

_But I guess I'm not in a good position to be condemning the little runts though, now am I? Here I am, the most powerful of the Bijuu, prattling on about why humans seek power. I do have an excuse, however. What _else_ am I supposed to do? You have to have something to do for eternity when your not doing your job, right?_

_Ah yes, my job. Quite entertaining, in its own way. No where near as fun as some of my own 'projects' have been, but that is to be expected. It is work, after all. And to put it simply, my job requires me to help 'maintain the balance'. Balance of what, you ask? What type of balance would require the assistance of a fox with 9 tails that's tall as a single skyscraper? Any guesses? None? Thats too bad, because I sure as hell am not going to tell you. _

_I will let you in on this, though. My job allows me to do just about anything. Pranks, jokes, rampages, mass destruction – all allowed. And was made much more entertaining when I could ensure myself that I received full credit for my misdeeds. Ah, those where the days. Too bad one of those little adventures happened to get me caged. _

_Again._

_I blame it on my ego. I _**always**_ end up doing something stupid whenever my goddamn ego shows up. At first, it wasn't anything that big of a deal. I had obviously heard about Konoha, Hidden Leaf Village, the 'strongest of the five shinobi villages'. Who hasn't? _

_And then, a thought suddenly occurs to me._

_Strongest demon, strongest village. _

_Lets see whose stronger. _

_What an idiot I was. Of course I knew a village full of ninjas should be able to do _something_ to me. Seriously hurt, maim, mangle, you know the drill. However, I did not expect them to trap me in a kid. That came totally out of left field. Hell, the last time I was subjected to such imprisonment, not only had the ones who imprisoned me came _looking_ for me, but the Kami themselves had helped!! What the hell am I supposed to do? Fight against those who hold the world together? Bah. Those times were kinda fun, though. The guy I get stuck in grows up, grows strong, lives their life, and I don't try to get them killed – or rather, try to make sure they didn't get themselves killed by doing something stupid. Then again, when they die, I go free. No real issues. Sure, I helped 'em out a bit, but thats part of my ego getting involved again. I must say, I really don't like losing. I had no real issues trying, and failing, against an army though. Happy to say _that_ particular army was finished up in the morning after they finally managed to kill my host. Or what was left of it, anyway. Losers._

_Oh yes, back to this little trip of mine. I need to write a list of Do's and Don'ts for things like this. For that night, it would have been simple._

_Do- check with the powers in order to verify they don't have plans to on interfering with my 'play time'. _

_Don't - forget to also check with the _all_ the powers, including the Reapers, to see if they happen to have any "friends" worth a damn in my soon-to-be 'playpen'._

_That last one bit me right in the ass when I missed it. Damn it, I forgot something again. The Reapers, aka, Grim Reaper, Shinigami, Death Gods, Soul Reapers, what have you – and they like to have... "friends", as they call them. Associates who act as eyes and ears in this world for them. Whenever they come across a dark spirit that decides to take refuge in this world, their job, in this case, is to clear things up before the 'little' issue becomes a 'big' issue. Not a big deal most of the time, but ever since one of those spirits went on a rampage, killing nearly half a continent of people in the matter of a week or two, they made sure to have some back up plans._

_After all, there are only so many Reapers, why not have some mini-reapers that can help out in a pinch? Not to mention, just exposing a bunch of promising youngsters to different techniques is always good for the creativity. _

_I suppose I should go back and tell my half of this little incident. So I come up, in all my big, bad ass glory, making a nice little 'trail' of devastation to 'encourage' a decent fight from the ninjas. The 'higher ups' didn't really have an issue with it as long as I leave the city mainly intact. So, some nice, rather consequence free, killing spree time. Its been a decade or two since I went on one of these, and wanted to make sure I enjoyed myself. _

_I think I tried too hard._

_So, after getting attacked by a nice line of the pipsqueaks, I actually started attacking back. They responded by starting throwing a bunch of these cool, flashy jutsu at me. So I started playing with the line a bit, testing to see how brave these guys really were. They weren't for the most part._

_Then this guy shows up on a frog. Not any frog, but the frog _boss_. All right, no big deal. Then the line changes. They lose their fear. Great, this means the guy on the frog is someone important... not that I hadn't figured that out form the fact it was a summon boss the guy was standing on. Now, from my experience, in situations like these I would be one of the either two types of people. Type one – and what I was hoping for at this point – was the one who thought the frog would have been enough to beat me. That would have been rather fun, in my opinion, for the five minutes or so it would have lasted. Type two one the other hand – they are the ones who knew better, the ones who actually had a solid idea of what to do about it. And this guy had received a brief tutoring, compliments of my to-do-list's new best friends. _

_Damn Reapers._

_Ok, I am going to say this now. I had no real intention of ever destroying the city itself. Damaging, yes. Destroying, no. The 'highers' forbid it directly. So I wanted to destroy a good chunk of the forest, maybe part of the wall, then make a flashy exit. Too bad I never got that close. This guy shows up on the frog, looks at me, and starts doing seals. No cause for alarm, really. I already had over a hundred jutsu thrown at me. I think I started getting nervous after he passed his 10th or 12th hand seal, and I got even more nervous when I recognized the the signature of the aura surrounding that was starting swirling around him. _

_Yep. You guessed it. Fucking Reapers._

_At this point, panic begins to set. By the gods, I had found one of their "friends", and these guys don't play fair OR by the rules. Obviously though, when you find something this far above your level, who would? But that wasn't the worst of it. I recognized this aura specifically. It wasn't just any reaper... but it was that of The Reaper._

_He had with him a child, no more than a day old. And he sealed me away inside the kid. This time there was no, 'If you make sure he doesn't die stupidly, you can get out when he bites it', there was only 'He bites it, you deal directly with The Reaper'. I HATE dealing with The Reaper. It reminds me too much of the few ways I could actually die. Facing The Reaper's judgment is definitely one of those ways. Poor me._

_Oh, poor me, trapped in some little shit, right? Lucky for me, I have been in this situation a few times. But this time was different in more ways than one. I could feel it. This brat wasn't the same type of 'special' that I was used to dealing with in hosts. This one wasn't worshiped, or treated 'special'. He was scorned. _

_I kept thinking to myself, what the hell the kid do? But when I actually bothered to think about it, it quickly dawned on me. The kid was being scorned _because_he was my host. It was the only reason I could come up with. Then I started doing all I could to sense what was happening around my host, and my theory was quickly proven right right. Slight mutterings of 'monster' or 'vile creature' or something similar was rather common around him. There are times I hate being right._

_You know what? There are times I really hate thinking, too. They always reminds me of when I don't bother and I have to pay the price when I actually do._

_It was during this time that I found out my newest host's name. Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto. Never can tell too much from just a name. Anyway, at this time, the kid, who somewhere around 4 or 5 in human years, was moving into his new apartment. It was around this time I decided it was time to work on making this new cage I was stuck in more... uh , well more comfortable. About the only thing I managed was equivalent of a surround movie theater with a rather powerful, though oversized, mood ring. So now I get to hear, see, and get a rather good idea on what the kid feels. Not bad for forced imprisonment._

_There was this old man who kept helping the boy after he was moved into his apartment. Naruto must have been just over five years old, and was doing rather well for himself. The old man would make sure he got enough food. He had a decent place to live. And he had learned to ignore the stupid villagers. _

_That last one surprised me. I wouldn't have been anywhere near so forgiving of all the cold looks, cruel stares, and biting comments that seemed to simply not exist to him. And it wasn't as if he was an idiot or blind or anything, he just found it easier to focus on something he could actually do something about. _

_Smart kid._

_Today, as I recall human tradition, was New Years. I liked New Years, it was a time to watch humans gorge themselves in alcohol, act like idiots, all while laughing at themselves. It's really too bad they couldn't do that more regularly. It would've been a source of nearly endless entertainment. _

_Moving on... Naruto was going home from a meeting with the old man when he ran into a guy with weird eyes. They were all white. Then I remembered something else about this village. Something I had been pissed about last time I actually bothered to care._

_The village had two powerful clans, who took opposite routes to similar arrogance._

_First there is the Hyuuga, with their famed 'White eyes', the Byakugan. They created techniques that depended heavily on their eyes, and allowed them a good advantage in combat against other humans. They created a style that focused on mastering a set of these techniques to create a highly skilled fighter. This led to the arrogance of thinking that it was their techniques alone that made them so strong. Or that it was their bloodline that made them the skilled fighters they were. Not too far off, as long as you fought 'normal' people. But they lacked variety that most fighters had, giving them a weakness that they refused to acknowledge even existed._

_And then there was the Uchiha. Very different perspective on power and techniques in general. They manually learned a select couple techniques as a rite of passage to adult hood. After this rite, the members were expected to activate their blood limit, the Sharingan, or the 'cheating eye' as I call it. With this doujutsu, they can copy techniques they see performed, although they lose out on the experience of learning the techniques, thus making them less skilled in its execution than by learning it normally. The clan focuses on learning more and more sheer power techniques, rather than improving the skill they have in each technique, like the Hyuuga. But this clan was also held in high regard._

_Too bad the ones that surrounded Naruto tonight are the waste of these clans. The weakest, the runts, the ones who wanted to find some type of shortcut to power that didn't require putting their lives in danger regularly or training for long periods of time. They had managed to find a scroll that detailed a technique that would unlock all memories of techniques of the victim and transfer it over to the users. It was originally designed as a last resort tactic during war time, and for good reason. It was dangerous. Very dangerous, especially when dealing with the sheer volume of knowledge I have acquired. It has been centuries, I think, that I have been learning, gradually acquiring knowledge, and there is no way anyone can expect to actually survive trying to learn knowledge gathered over such a period of time could be condensed and processed in anything that could be considered short. _

_Too bad for them, though, that the technique was incomplete. Well, _incomplete _would probably be the wrong word for it. The technique would work if they were trying to get the information from a human victim, and were unconcerned that it left said person in a vegetative state. It would work, if they hadn't needed to modify it to work on something sealed _inside _the victim instead. Not knowing exactly how the sealed target was linked to the container was a piece of vital information. Lacking this, an error was almost guaranteed. The improper alteration practically reversed the result of the technique. Of the five that surrounded Naruto, two of them immediately went into the vegetative state, and other three remained oblivious to this. They were too busy be worried about the partial success their alterations achieved. Bringing my consciousness to the forefront of the boys mind. In short, they had brought me out to play. It was rather _nice_ of them, if I do say so myself. They would probably call it something more like a _fatally grave mistake_ or something along those lines. Call it what you will._

_How did Naruto get convinced to be the oversized lab rat for this twisted experiment? Rather simply actually. They offered to do something to him that would make all the kids want to play with him. Hook, line, and sinker. Not a big deal to promise something they couldn't do when they didn't expect him to be in anything but vegetative state when they were done, and it got him to agree easily enough. Kids. So simple to manipulate, as long as you aren't locked _inside_them._

_Stupid seal. _

_What did you say? I forgot something? Oh dear me, but I have. I got so distracted remembering what got me in that mess that I forgot _my_ part in this ordeal. It was the most fun I have had in years, no matter that is was the _only_ thing I had been able to do during that time. Finally free from sitting in that silly cage of a seal, I could _move_. That alone was cause for a little fun and mischief. Too bad I knew it wouldn't last. Even as I became consciously aware that I could control the boy's body, I could feel the seal starting to reject the technique that gave me this blessed freedom. I quickly figured how long until the seal would return to full power. It gave me just enough time to experiment with this procedure I had been thinking of, and then hopefully get some clear results. And if I got lucky, I would still have enough time to find someway to block the kids memory of tonight. But fun first, work second._

_Those fools were a waste of space. After freezing at my 'arrival', they were rather easily convinced to listen to, and do, _anything _I asked of them. Bah, there goes any fun for a fight. Haven't had one of those in five years, and it looked like _that_ streak was about to continue. Sucks for me. Too bad for you, but I am _**not**_ telling you my little experiments with my new, albeit temporary, toys. I will just say that forcing an equivalent to an average adult ninja's chakra pool directly into their inner coils results in something between burning them from the inside, and a small explosion of guts and gore. It was rather entertaining, actually._

_Anyway, after my little bit of fun, I managed to find a few explosive notes and the scroll outlining the technique they had tried. Not even bothering to read it, I threw it in the middle of the remains of my fun, and set the notes to turn the area into a small crater. My work finished, evidence cleared away, it was time for work. An excuse for blocking the kid's memory of tonight for at least a good long while. And then I saw them._

_The bottles of paradise, the nearly universal celebratory beverage. Saké. Taking a quick check, there was for more than enough to get this kid drunk. Taking half a dozen bottles, I took the kid to an empty training ground some distance from the ordeal. I quickly proceeded to get smashed. Only took me only two bottles, too. What a lightweight. Though I imagine that would be expected, consider the kid _was_ only five, and this was definitely the first time he had anything even close to this strong to drink. Good thing I make my hosts immune to alcohol poisoning, I remember thinking to myself as I proceeded to finish the other 4 bottles, insuring that by the time the kid woke up, there would be no question as to why he couldn't remember a damned thing from tonight. Who knows, it might even wipe his mind of the night entirely, saving me from having to explain it to him. If I ever get forced into a situation where that would come up. Not that it would matter, but I prefer keeping my experiments secret._

_Damn it, now that I think about it, how would I explain it to him? Its not like I can just talk to him. I tried that already. I tried every way that I could think of, and I still managed to not be able attract his attention in anyway. Maybe something will come to eventually. I hope so, it gets rather boring when all you can do is watch most of the time. And with no one to talk to._

_Anyway, the sun is going to be coming up soon, and the kid isn't going to be too far behind. I almost feel sorry for him, hes going to have a killer hangover. I remember managing to get a previous host this drunk one time after he pissed me off. He could barely move for most of the next two days. I never did let him live that down, either. Mightiest warrior of the west, bedridden for two days due to drinking too much. Too bad that no one remembers him here. Maybe I should check some history books to read what they said about what happened to that army..._

-Kyuubi, the nine tailed demon fox

---

A blond boy laid against the root of tree in a clearing. Upon looking closer, one would notice that the clearing was really a training ground, though the boy did not look like he had been training much of anything. Quietly, the boy stirred. Flinching at the newly risen sun, he gazed around himself. His clothes made him look like he had not had a good night, slightly battered and torn, with scattered splotches of blood. Startled, the boy jumped up, only to drop again as a headache felt like it nearly split his head in half. Looking up gingerly, he spotted numerous _empty_ Saké bottles around him.

"What the hell happened last night?" the boy muttered to himself as he felt the darkness claim him once more.

( ") ( ") ( ") --- (" ) (" ) (" )

A/N- Chapter 1 redone in all its glory.

I have decided on not even trying to give myself a completion timeline. I tend to mess them up too much. And you can't force genius, so you will all just have to wait. Just like me.

For those of you reading this for the first time, or those reading it for the n'th time, I am pleased to have you read my work. In the interest of better writing (and fewer plot holes) I have been editing the posted chapters, and have acquired a beta. Thanks for those of you who are rereading this, and thanks to those who are reading this for the first time. May you enjoy reading this at least as much as I enjoyed(hated, swore at, neglected, despised, loved, loathed...) writing it.

Till Next Time...

-Skele


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